City of Dark Angels

I smile weakly, we did it. We truly did it, we stopped Raviera from ending the world and leaving people trapped inside their minds.

Everything is back to normal.

I sit up, still in some pain from the fall.

Travis places a hand on my shoulder to keep me from sitting up, yet the stubbornness kicking in.

“After you passed out, Raviera threw a fit; furious his plan was ruined. The bright light, it fell upon the City of Angels bringing sun back to the world. The once dark angels, their wings turned white, confused and dazed but back to normal. Those from the real world, they returned to normal. Everything is back to what it was, the curse has been lifted.” Death explains all of this to me, I listen happily. Ecstatic for the world to be at what its supposed to be.

“Delilah and Travis I have a proposition for you. But I will explain when Delilah is feeling a little bit better. Meet me in the control room when you are ready too, I have much to fix right now.”

Travis nods, and Death disappears.

“I am going to go check on my friends, and make sure they are okay. I’m taking Riley with me to introduce them to him; if that’s okay with you.”

“Of course it is.” I smile and they leave the room, and I find myself alone with Travis.

Travis reaches out and grabs my hand and holds it softly, I look at him with hope in my eyes.

“We did it.” I say, closing my eyes and starting to drift off.

“We did it.” I hear him repeat.

***

With everything being back to normal, we take the elevator up to the control room.

I walk in and Death is happily sitting at a desk in the center of the room, looking through the monitors and typing away at the computer. He glances up at Travis and I as we enter the room, he motions for us to sit in the chairs in front of him.

“I see you are looking well rested Delilah.” He observes and I smile, still feeling weak but much better than what I felt before.

“Yes very much so.”

“Thank you for everything you’ve done for the City of Angels these past few days, I can’t even put into words how to express how grateful I am for all you two have done.” He says, taking a deep breath before moving on; “Well, taking care of the City of Angels AND doing my duties as Death has begun to get too much for me lately, so I was wondering if you and Travis would be willing to take over the City of Angels for me.”

He slides over a set of keys and I glance down at it in amazement.

“I would love to...but I have so much going on in my life, and I’m starting school in the fall.”

He nods, “I understand, to make it easier on you; you can come at your own pace, the entrance of the city of angels can be wherever its convenient.”

I consider it all for a moment, the proposition sounds like a wonderful opportunity. I look over at Travis and he smiles excitedly.

“Call it a deal then!” I say, and Travis extends a handshake towards Death.

“Wonderful Delilah! I just need the both of you to sign down here, then I will go over details from there.” He hands us a paper and I read over it before signing my name at the bottom of the page. Travis does the same.

The next little while, Death goes over some things with us in the control room, pointing out different areas of the city and how to run the place. A little while later, I believe I have a good idea of how to handle the place.

“Let me give you a little tour of the city.” He says, and we take the elevator downstairs and walk out of the building.

The sun blinds my eyes when I first step outside into the city, but after a moment of adjustment I take in my surroundings and find myself astounded at everything I am witnessing. I turn to look at Travis in amazement who is just as wonder struck at the beauty that is the City of Angels.

Erika and Riley run up to us just then, happily smiling and holding hands. I raise my eyebrows in his direction and he blushes slightly.

“Erika said I can come back here whenever I want to!” He says happily, grinning from ear to ear.

“That’s amazing news Riley!” I say to him, as we walk down a path in the city. I kneel down at a pond, splashing the cool water onto my face.

“Travis and I have good news as well.” I turn to Travis and he nods, ready to give out the good news himself.

“Well, what would that be?” Erika asks.

“Delilah and I are the new leaders of the City of Angels!” He says happily, and Erika and Riley cheer.

“A beautiful light always comes after a rush of chaos and terror.” Death says, showing us around the city some more. “I couldn’t ask for two better leaders to take over one of my greatest creations for me.”

“So, why did you create the City of Angels?” I ask, the curiosity of the entire place filling my mind.

Death thinks it over for a moment but then shrugs his shoulders, “To fix the broken; to mend the healing process; we have many different programs here for the living to take part in as well.”

“Wow, that’s amazing; well good on you!” I say to him. He beams at my compliment.

“Well, I have some things to take care of. I’ll leave the four of you to explore on your own for a bit. Whenever you want to leave the City just use the key card at that gate over there.” Death explains, pointing to a gate off in the distance. “You just have to input where you want it to open to, and huzzah!”

I laugh at his dramatic hand gestures as he stumbles away back to the tower, I turn back to Travis, his eyes gleaming in the sunlight.

“So, new City of Angels coworker… how are you feeling?” Travis asks.

“I feel, great.” I say, truly feeling that way. No lies, or hidden thoughts. Fully and completely, great.

ONE MONTH LATER

“Yes, that’s it…light strokes, and beautiful!” The young girl beams at me, taking a step back from her painting and looking at it in delight.

The past month of leading the City of Angels has been insane, beautifully and chaotically insane. So many dying and at risk youth have joined the City of Angels, turning their fateful lives around for the better. I’ve been teaching art lessons and helping them turn there anger into something beautiful. The girl I am working with now, her name is Lilian; she came to me two weeks ago from a broken home, she harmed herself on the daily and didn’t think she would adapt to anything in life. Yet, here she is now; finishing up her first painting.

“Now, tell me about the painting you just finished.” I ease her into it, knowing exactly what her painting is about.

“Well, you see that tree off in the corner?”

“Yes, darling I do.”

“That’s the place I first tried to kill myself…” She trails off sadly, but then lights up as she points to herself sitting under the tree, writing furiously in a notebook.

“But, my mom found me. That’s her right there, running out of the house holding my favorite drink. She stopped me, and told me how much she loved me and that we were moving far away from the place that broke us down.”

“Is that why there’s bags on top of the car?” I ask.

“Yes, we left that day. I thought, maybe things will get better…but my new school they weren’t. That’s me, standing by the lockers, and those are the mean girls that made fun of me.” She explains to me more of how bad things got, and how again she wanted to end it.

“I had brought the pills to school that day, I had planned to take them at lunch time. Then, I was called down to the guidance councilors and saw you standing there, see that angel off in the corner?”

I smile, “Yes.”

“That’s you, you told me of this program; I didn’t believe it at first. But, here we are, and I don’t know how to thank you enough.”

“Your painting, and you getting better thanks me more than words ever will.” I tell her, tears forming in my eyes as I pull her into a hug. “Are you going to go back home tomorrow? Or are you staying the extra week?”

“I think I am ready to go home.” She says, pulling away from the hug and smiling up at me. “I will miss you Delilah.”

“I’ll miss you too sweetie, you can come back whenever you feel you need to. You know just how to reach me.”

She nods, turning to her painting again.

I hear a soft knock at the door, I stand up and smile at Travis who is standing at the door a clipboard in his hand. The past month he has been running a drug addiction support group, he’s been taking the youths that come to him for what he calls “field trips” into the forest, and sitting by a lake discussing their addictions. He’s helped so many, and himself as well.

“Got a minute?” He asks, sounding like he just ran a marathon.

“Whats up?” I ask him, pacing up to him at the door.

“I have to show you something, it’s so cool!” He says, grabbing my hand and racing off out the door.

“Where are we going? Travis, you know I have another lesson in like, ten minutes!” I say breathlessly, looking down at my watch.

“It will only take a minute!”

Finally we are outside, and he leads me into the forest and down a path. Still grasping my hand and strides ahead of me.

“This has been more than a minute Travis.” I say starting to wonder.

Finally we reach a clearing in the forest, on the ground is a blanket spread out and a picnic basket full of goodies and a bottle of wine and two glasses.

“Travis, what is this?” I ask him, panting as he strolls up to the blanket and pours me a glass of wine.

“Figured you could use a break for a bit.”

“But Travis… I have a lesson!” I smirk, taking all of this in.

“I canceled it.” He reaches out to grab my hand and walks me over to the blanket and sits me down in front of him.

“…Travis, you what?”

“Relax, they were cool with it.” He hands me a glass of wine, and I take a sip. He pours himself a glass of Pepsi, I laugh.

“Still gotta stay sober.” He smirks, and holds his wine glass up and we clink glasses. “I also, wanted to talk to you about something…”

“What is it Travis?” I ask, my heart racing in my chest from a slight worry something may be wrong.

“It’s nothing bad it’s just that…this past month, and even before then has all been the most amazing, most magical months of my life.” He puts down his glass and leans forward, and places the softest and sweetest kiss on my lips.

I can feel my heart nearly stop in my chest for a moment, I softly return the kiss and close my eyes. I can feel his smile forming beneath my lips as he pulls away, and I glance into his brown eyes. He grabs my hand and places it on his chest.

“You feel that? That’s my heartbeat, I said it once and I’ll say it again. If it weren’t for you, meeting you in the brink, you getting me to come back from my addiction, and showing me theirs so much more to life then what I thought. It wouldn’t be beating, yes I did a lot of this on my own, but you showed me the way Delilah. You, gave me that heartbeat; and Delilah… I love you.”

I feel light, like all the weight of the world has been taken away from me and thrown far away, I throw myself into his arms and place my head onto his chest listening to his heartbeat, the heartbeat that wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the accident.

I glance up at him, he’s smiling down at me and places a kiss on my forehead.

“It’s only going to get better from here.” I say, intertwining my fingers with his. Knowing that it’s the truth, and the City of Angels is ours.

The world is ours.